In almost every form of marketing, one of the most important aspects of a business is the brand. Branding is so important that, without it, you will leave your target consumer confused and unsure of who you actually are as a business, let alone what your service or product is that you’re trying to promote.

However, you could have the most well-thought-out branding in the world but if you don’t ‘humanize’ your approach and tell your story to your target consumer, you may not achieve anywhere near as much success as your business is capable of. Storytelling is a strategic method of making your business appear relatable, as well as having a positive effect on both the neurological and behavioral bodily systems. So, if your current ad campaigns aren’t as successful as you’d like, keep reading to discover a variety of storytelling techniques you can use to boost your ROI like never before!

Your company’s story

To make your audience understand you, identify with you and truly know what your business is all about, it’s essential they know how you started and where you came from. And what better way to achieve this than through storytelling.

Your business wouldn’t have achieved immediate overnight success unless you had significant financial backing from the outset and had an extremely lucky break. It’s likely you’ve had lots of ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ along the road with plenty of history and lessons learned, and it’s important to share this with your consumers.

People want to buy from those they trust. If you’re honest and open about how your business began and how you’ve achieved its current success so far, they’ll almost feel like they know your business on a personal level and will be much more willing to buy from you. To learn more about exactly how to incorporate stories into your existing content marketing strategy, take a look at Poet Media.

A customer’s testimonial story

In addition to feeling like they know your business’s story on a more personal level, another storytelling strategy almost guaranteed to improve ROI is previous customer success. If new customers can see the positive effect your service or product has had on someone else, they will be a lot more likely to buy simply because they’ll want to achieve those same results.

Get in touch with some of your previous buyers to gain some real-life, authentic testimonials about their experience. Emphasize how your product transformed a negative situation they were in into something more positive, and hit home on the specific benefits buying from you has had on their life.

Then, once your new customers have read stories of the positivity your product or service has had on others, they will also want to achieve the same solutions they did. This will encourage them to do one simple thing – buy from you!

Your personal story

Most CEOs and business owners think they shouldn’t get too personal, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Not letting your guard down and maintaining an extremely corporate exterior could, in fact, be the sole reason why you’re not achieving your desired ROI.

Whilst it’s true that there’s a fine line between mixing your personal life with your business ventures, humanizing yourself as well as your business will pack double the storytelling punch. Obviously only go into as much detail as you feel comfortable with, but if there was a particular event in your life that inspired you to start your business, share it!

As mentioned earlier, people like to buy from those they trust. If potential new customers gain more of an insight into your personal experiences as opposed to just that of the business, they will feel like they’re buying directly from someone they know instead of just a corporate company. Portraying yourself as a real, relatable human being as opposed to just ‘the CEO of the business’ is almost guaranteed to increase likeability, humanize your business message and connect with your audience on a more in-depth level.

Never underestimate the value of storytelling. For a business of virtually any size, storytelling can be an extremely advantageous tool of humanizing your image and making your product or service appear more relatable and accessible. Don’t be afraid to let your guard down and get personal because, after all, we buy from those we trust and that’s exactly the sort of emotion you want your customers to experience with your business.

Tia Atkinson is a marketing campaign manager who enjoys sharing some unique marketing ideas around the web to spark business owners imaginations.